1. Field of the Invention
The present invention broadly relates to the transmission of data from a computer to a remotely located terminal over a communication line and, more particularly, is concerned with a data rate control device which interfaces between the computer and the communication line and is operable to read data out of the computer fast and then slowly transmit it over the line.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a communication system in which data is transmitted from a computer over a communication line to a terminal at a remote or distant location, such as a teletype machine, it is desirable to transmit the data out slowly in order to allow time for reflections and echoes from the data to die down on the line. However, the slow reading out of data from the computer ties up an inordinate amount of its time which is expensive.
One alternative is to provide an external buffer memory connected to the computer to receive all of the data from it at a fast rate and store the data. Then the data will be read out from the buffer memory and transmitted slowly on the communication line. While such memory reduces the amount of computer time taken up in reading out of the data, it must have considerable storage capacity which is costly also. Therefore, this alternative merely results in shifting the cost without reducing it significantly.